1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an ink-jet printer including a carriage which carries a recording head and which is reciprocateable in a main scanning direction. In particular, the present invention relates to an ink-jet printer including a waste-ink retaining device which retains a waste ink ejected by the recording head when a flushing operation is performed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
There is known an ink-jet printer including a carriage which carries a recording head and which is reciprocateable in a main scanning direction. The ink-jet printer records an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink to the recording medium by the recording head during the reciprocating movement of the carriage in the main scanning direction. The ink-jet printer also performs a flushing operation, when needed, in which a waste ink is forcedly ejected from a nozzle of the recording head, so that the nozzle of the recording head is prevented from being clogged by the waste ink. Accordingly, the ink-jet printer can enjoy a high quality of image recorded on a recording medium.
Furthermore, Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2004-174766) discloses an ink-jet printer including a waste-ink retaining device (for example, pulp) which is provided below a platen which is opposed to the recording head.